Beautiful White Knob Quarry Fluorescent Diopside and Wollastonite Specimen

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Beautiful Large Colorful Diopside and Wollastonite Fluorescent Rock from the World-Famous White Knob Quarry Beautiful Specimen from One of the Best Sources of Fluorescent Rocks in the World! Minerals : Diopside -- MgCaSi 2O 6 Wollastonite: CaSiO 3 Unknown: Possibly a Ferric Calcium Silicate/Carbonate? Colors : Diopside: Bright Light Blue Wollastonite: Bright Mustard- to Canary-Yellow Unknown: Bright Light Pink Size : 6" x 5" x 4" About the White Knob Quarry: The White Knob Quarry is located high up on the north face of the San Bernardino Mountain range, overlooking the Lucerne Valley and the southern end of the Mojave Desert in southern California. What began as a poorly producing, tiny gold prospect with tons of carbonate overburden, was in fact into one of the world’s purest sources of pharmaceutical-grade calcium carbonate. If you’ve ever taken a vitamin, brushed your teeth, or popped a Tums in your mouth after a spicy dinner, then you’ve eaten or used some of the White Knob Quarry calcite in your body! The White Knob, along with another quarry near Cadiz, CA, produces about 50-60% of the world’s total supply of pharmaceutical-grade calcite, but what we’re interested in is the material in the skarn contact zone – what was once considered “waste material.” Here, in a 25’-wide contact zone with the Monte Cristo Formation carbonates, are found calcite mixed with rhodochrosite, wollastonite, and other minerals with fluorescent activators. The rhodochrosite-stained calcite fluoresces a brilliant rich day-glo reddish-orange; wollastonite glows a shocking canary yellow; and aragonite contributes a beautiful rich light turquoise blue, with excellent phosphorescence. New areas of excavation have uncovered contact metamorphism involving feldspar with trivalent ferric iron, wollastonite, and diopside, along with possibly new mineral species. It should go without saying, but . . . this IS a fluorescent specimen, and a shortwave ultraviolet lamp and a darkened room are required to see the colors as portrayed here. About This Specimen: This is a terrific, large, bright, and colorful specimen, consisting of extremely bright light blue fluorescent diopside, in swirled layers of mustard-yellow to bright yellow-fluorescing wollastonite, with layers of non-fluorescing calcite, diopside, or other secondary metamorphic minerals. The effect is reminiscent of enlarged picture jasper or wonderstone, but these are better -- they're fluorescent! The second photo shows a fracture from faulting that offset the layers, then cemented and healed. It is a large, heavy, bright specimen and would be an awesome addition to anyone's fluorescent mineral collection! Don’t miss out on this great high-quality specimen. The quarry is open to only a very few collectors on an infrequent basis at best. We were permitted in to collect on Saturday night, July 14th. They don’t HAVE to allow collecting there, but they occasionally do. Take advantage of this brilliantly colorful and beautiful specimen while it is still available! To view a video from our trip that was posted on YouTube, /watch?v=HtUtF0lhY8c&feature=youtu.be About The Lake Arrowhead Natural History Museum, Inc.: The major purpose of the Lake Arrowhead Natural History Museum is to bring the beauty and wonder of rocks, minerals, and fossils to inner-city school kids. Despite being disabled, I used to take my extensive collection to schools in San Bernardino, CA, until the tragic fire in the San Bernardino Mountains in October, 2003, destroyed my home, all of my kids' and my possessions, and my entire collection of rocks and minerals. Since then, I have been trying to recreate a presentable collection and to gather samples of interesting rocks -- local actinolite is a favorite -- to give to each and every kid in attendance at the assemblies. In less than 90 minutes, I teach them all about elements, minerals, roc... read more

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